Here, Then, and Now
by Sentury
Summary: **Spoilers!** Robin couldn't remember his past, he wasn't sure about his future, so right now was all he really had, and he wanted to spend that with someone he loved.


**Hello, friends! Been a while since I dropped a story on you, but I'm actually working on something else and I love this couple, so I thought it could be a good warm up. Enjoy!**

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He found her standing by herself on a lone hill far away from camp gazing at a starless sky. It was a fitting night for the eve of their final battle, silent, dead, cased in utter darkness as the clouds loomed over head covering every star and the entire moon while the dull roar of thunder echoed far away. That saddened Robin, it was a stupid sorrow, but this could be his last time seeing the night sky, he would have liked to have seen the stars one last time.

In silence, he sat himself down to the woman's right and gazed up at the same sky, _well, _he thought with a smile, _at least I'll get to see one beautiful sight. _And Lucina smiled at him, before continuing to look up in silence.

"What're you doing here, Robin?" she finally asked, but not coldly, more with subtle warmth that knew he would find her, "Doesn't my father need you for some kind of big battle meeting or something?"

"I could say the same for you, I think." Robin replied, shifting to make himself a little more comfortable, "Besides, I'm not sure there's much to do in the way of strategy, who knows what we'll face. The best I could say would be, 'If you see a big dragon, go stab it with that fancy new sword of yours.'" Lucina chuckled for a moment at that, and so Robin considered it a success on the same level as conquering a nation.

"One of your better strategies, if you ask me." Lucina responded, still smiling, and still gazing at the sky.

"Oh certainly! The bards will sing of me for centuries, and everyone will forget about poor old' Chrom." Lucina laughed again, but this time did not respond, and so Robin continued, "What're you doing out here anyway?"

She frowned, "I had hoped to see the stars, but it looks like I'll naught have the chance tonight. A shame, they always seemed brighter in this time than mine."

"How strange, I wonder why. Perhaps Grima's power can darken life itself." A shuddering thought, and for the hundredth time, Robin thanked the gods he was here, now, in this time and not any other.

"Perhaps, or maybe I just never looked hard enough." Robin noticed a sadness in Lucina's voice, and for a time he sat there in silence as she stood over him, thinking about how difficult it must have been to leave a place you had known your whole life – even a broken place like her future – and go to somewhere new with the possibility of never going back.

"Do you think, when this is over, and provided we win, you'll go back?" he asked her

She shook her head as she responded, "No, it's impossible. Naga said as much when we passed through the gate. In all likelihood, my time no longer exists. Past, present, future, they are written in stone. The only way to change one is to destroy it, and rewrite it."

"I'm so sorry." Robin knew not what else to say.

"It's alright, there was little much to save in my world anyway, perhaps it was wrong to destroy what little the people had left, but I had to do something."

Her voice betrayed her words, and not unsurprisingly, for Robin knew – now more than ever after serving with Chrom – that the mark of any great leader was a love for their people. And while it was right of Lucina to come here and save the world, there would always be a part of her that could never forgive herself for leaving her people.

"I'm glad," Robin said, and Lucina looked down at him oddly, but still he swore, that even confused and standing in utter darkness, she was more beautiful than any star he'd ever seen, "I'm glad you're staying I mean."

Robin reached a hand up through the darkness to reach her, she stopped it halfway and took his hand in-between the safety of her own and stroked it for a moment. Then, in a gesture so laced with elegance she sat down beside him and took his hand to the side of her face and let it stay there, nestled between her fingers and her cheekbone. Robin couldn't help but wonder what he had done to deserve such a beautiful moment, a moment so beautiful, it made his very heart sing– and perhaps too then, Grima's.

Yet, for some reason, Robin felt tears drip down from Lucina's eyes and onto his hand.

"Lucina I – '' she cut him off with a finger of her other hand to his lips.

"I know what you intend to do tomorrow, Robin." He smiled at her, of course she did, somehow women always knew these things. It was in this moment that Robin should have been the most afraid, the most apprehensive about losing everything he built, and yet, somehow, Robin was still at peace with his fate, because it was a fate he would choose himself. His life would not be something preordained, destined, decided at his birth, no, he would tug at his own string in this puppet show.

"Then please," he pleaded with smooth motion of his thumb to wipe away a tear, "don't ask me not to."

She let his hand fall from her face and instead put each of her own on the sides of his face, "I can't" she said, agony in her voice, and Robin felt sorrow building in his eyes, "I can't ask you to choose me over the world."

"Lucina," Robin's voice broke, "thank you, for everything."

She leaned her head in until their foreheads were touching and the tears dropped one by one off of her chin, sparkling like stars in the night, "but I can beg you, command you to please not do this." The tears flowed faster and Robin brought up his hand and stroked the backside of her knuckles.

"Thank you for loving me, Lucina." That was too much for her, and a river of salt trickled down her face.

"You'll die, Robin." She whispered through her sadness.

Robin did not respond, instead he looked at the sky for a time, smiling in a mixture of joy and sorrow.

"The stars are still there." He said finally.

She buried her head into his chest, shrieking silently with muffled cries of agony. He wrapped his arms around her and hugged her as tight as he could, afraid that if he let her go, she would be gone forever.

"They're still there," he said again, "We're just missing them in the clouds."

Her fingers tore at the fabric of his tunic and again, Robin felt his heart flutter with joy at this moment, but _his _heart, no other's.

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**Arg, hope that wasn't too confusing, Got to love Awakening though, am I right? Anyway, let me know what you think, I always love hearing opinions!**

**Also, time travel confuses me.**


End file.
